The present invention relates to building alarm systems and especially to a building alarm system adapted to give a localized alarm as well as a remote alarm providing more detailed information about the location of each actuated fire detector in a building.
In the past, it has been common to provide various types of fire alarm systems for large buildings, as well as smaller buildings and residences. In the simplist system, a smoke or heat detector is battery operated to actuate a small electronic sound alarm for placing in homes to alert or awaken occupants. In larger buildings, it has been more customary to provide sprinkler systems on some or all of the floors which are typically actuated by heat to sprinkle water in any area where the heat rises above a certain level. Such systems may also be actuated by smoke, but have the disadvantage that the water from the sprinkler system frequently does more damage than the smoke or fire, and very typically, does not have a warning system for occupants in the building.
Prior art fire alarm systems also provide for pull stations to report a fire to a fire station, and usually report a fire only by zone. Most systems are dependent on the available line voltage as part of their operation. An electrical fire's power to the alarm system is sometimes lost, so that an alarm is not given until individually reported. These systems also can be shut down or overriden. Most do not provide detectors throughout a building, but only in isolated areas and without built in alarms to warn people in other parts of the building. The present invention, on the other hand, is directed towards a system which is fully automatic and which can detect a fire in any part of a building and thereafter notify the fire department without the need of human participation. The system is low voltage throughout with separate battery backups having a trickle charger connected to the line voltage. The use of automatic telephone dialers, which are commonly available, to generate a signal to a small microcomputer which stores the location of the detector being actuated, produces advance information of the specific location of a fire and where it is spread to, in addition to giving a localized alarm and advising the fire department, police or rescue teams of the position of the fire. The system also gives the layout of each floor of the building so that rapid rescue and fire extinguishing activities can take place.
An advantage of the present system is its ease of retrofit installation, along with its low cost of installation compared with conventional systems used in large buildings and the provision for the operation of the alarms even in the event of line voltage failure.